FC Barcelona laid down a Champions League marker on Wednesday night by setting a new competition scoring record in a 47-27 demolition of HC Eurofarm Pelister at the Palau Blaugrana. The result confirmed first place in Group B and gave the Catalan side a thirteenth victory in fourteen matches as the knockout phase looms.
The scale of the dominance was startling. Barcelona scored 24 goals in the opening 30 minutes alone, an output that would have been a respectable full-match total for many sides in the competition. By the final whistle the home side had broken the EHF Champions League single-match scoring record, a number that had stood as a benchmark for years.
"The team has grown bigger and stronger. We have an incredible ease in scoring goals," coach Carlos Ortega said after the match. His comment captured a season in which Barcelona have looked less interested in grinding out narrow wins than in constructing the kind of all-court attacking system that simply outscores opponents.
Goalkeeper Viktor Hallgrimsson backed up the firepower at the other end with 12 saves at a 50 percent save rate, the kind of goalkeeping performance that turns a comfortable lead into a record book entry. Barcelona's wings tore through Pelister's defensive structure, the line player created chances at will, and the back court was finishing every half-chance.
The Group B story did not end with Barcelona. Paris Saint-Germain produced one of the matchday's most consequential results by overturning defending champions SC Magdeburg 34-26 to leap into fourth place. PSG dominated from kickoff and exploited a series of Magdeburg absences. Elohim Prandi led the visitors with 11 goals to take his Champions League tally for the season to 111, becoming the competition's outright top scorer.
"We're very satisfied to finish the group phase on a positive note," PSG line player Luka Karabatic said after the win. The result lifts a club that has had a rocky season into the knockout positions and gives them genuine momentum heading into the playoffs.
Elsewhere in Group B, GOG broke a sequence of seven home defeats to beat HC Zagreb 33-28, with Frederik Bjerre adding to a 102-goal group-phase haul. Orlen Wisla Plock and OTP Bank-PICK Szeged drew 30-30 thanks to a buzzer-beater from Melvyn Richardson, a result that pushed Plock into third place on 18 points.
For Barcelona the focus now turns to the knockout draw. Ortega's side have set the scoring bar for the competition and confirmed themselves as the favourites for a deep run, but the Champions League playoffs have a way of producing tighter contests than group-stage routs. The record-breaking 47 will look great in the highlight reel; the question over the coming weeks will be how Barcelona handle the moments when it is the defending and the goalkeeping that decide a tie.